But before you jump straight into buying, there are many things to consider such as the brightness levels, number of light modes, battery life, material used, quick release mounting types, beam patterns and more.

1. Cateye Volt 500XC

The Cateye Volt 500XC is great bike front light for those who have a tight budget. It’s also among of my 3 favorite light models below $50.

As far as the Cateye brand is concerned, you’ll be getting top-notch Japanese quality and technology.

With the Cateye Volt 500XC, Cateye has updated its mounting design. It now uses rubber strap which is much easy to install and remove as compared to the previous plastic strap which was cumbersome and prone to breaking.

1. Exposure Lights Sirius MK8

The Sirius is a great looking headlight from British brand, Exposure Lights. It’s now in its 8th iteration (hence the MK8), so you can be sure that a lot of work has been done to improve it based on the cyclists’ feedbacks.

It’s body is constructed from an anodised aluminum casing, making it very durable. At full power, the single CREE shines at 750 lumens, but with a shorter burn time of 1.5 hours. As you tone down the brightness, the burn time increases up to 36 hours for flashing mode.

There are all together 7 modes for you to choose from including High, Medium, Low, Flashing and Day Bright which is useful to ensure you’re seen by other road users while riding during the day.

2. Knog PWR Road

The PWR is Knog’s latest addition to their already solid lineup of bike lights.

With the PWR Rider, not only you’ll get 600 lumens of light output, but you’ll also get a powerbank to go with it.

That’s why it’s called PWR to begin with.

The battery pack can be used to power the headlight as well as charge all your other electronic devices while riding. To put things in perspective, you can charge a iPhone7 from flat to 50% and do an hour of riding at 600 lumens.

Best of all, you can program the light modes to suit your needs through their ModeMaker app.

3. Beryl Laserlight

Britain-based BERYL’s motto with this new offering is be visible before your seen. And it’s patented Laserlight Core technology is what makes that happen. The Laserlight creates a beam of light coupled with a laser image of a bike onto the road ahead to let drivers know you’re coming. It is powerful enough to project a beam out of blind spots, blind intersections and other areas where you would otherwise be unseen.

This Laserlight boasts 400 lumens. It offers four different modes including Day Flash, Pulse, 100% solid and 50% solid. Battery life is of course important when it comes to laserlights. BERYL’s batteries provide up to 41 hours of life.

Best Smart Functionalities

These bike lights are for the tech geeks, like myself.

They come with built-in intelligence and can communicate with your phone via Bluetooth.

3. Cycliq Fly12

The unique thing bout the Fly12 is it combines a headlight with a HD bike camera.

The ultra wide angle camera (135˚field of view) records audio and video at full HD at 1080p, 60fps. It also has a High Dynamic Range (HDR) option which allows you to record videos with amazing clarity under difficult conditions.

It can connect automatically when connected to the Garmin Edge computers via ANT+, or to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

1. Exposure Lights Joystick MK12

The first thing you’ll notice about the Joystick is its price tag. Yes it’s expensive and for a good reason.

It’s a very popular among serious mountain bikers because it’s one of the few compact bike front lights that has a run time of 1.5 hours at 1000 lumens, or 3 hours at 500 lumens, which will get you through most of your road cycling in the dark.

This is achieved through a patented, intelligent electronic circuitry that regulates light output, thermal management and beam patterns.

Couple this with a lightweight and durable CNC aluminium body and mounting, you have a real winner.

2. NiteRider Lumina Pro OLED 1100

A premium, super bright headlight by NiteRider with a OLED display on the top.

The multifunctional display on the NiteRider Lumina has a built-in battery indicator that shows you exactly how much battery is left in percentage and estimated run times so you don’t have to worry running out of battery juice again.

This light is powered by the industry leading CREE LED lights with a wide beam pattern.

Best Bike Lights Set

1. Cygolite Metro 700 and Hotshot 100

If you’re looking for a bike light set, then look no further than the Cygolite Metro 700 and Hotshot 100 combo. Together, they represent the best value for money bike light set available today.

The Metro 700 headlight comes with 6 light mode options, including the Day Lightning mode to ensure you’re seen during the day.

On the other hand, the Hotshot 100 is arguably the most popular rear light among our readers here. You won’t find a high quality, 100 lumens rear lights at this price. Most, if not all will cost you more than this light set itself.

2. Light & Motion Urban 500 Commuter Combo

If you’re looking for a bike light set, then look no further than the Cygolite Metro 700 and Hotshot 100 combo. Together, they represent the best value for money bike light set available today.

The Metro 700 headlight comes with 6 light mode options, including the Day Lightning mode to ensure you’re seen during the day.

On the other hand, the Hotshot 100 is arguably the most popular rear light among our readers here. You won’t find a high quality, 100 lumens rear lights at this price. Most, if not all will cost you more than this light set itself.

3. NiteRider Lumina 900 and Sabre 80

If you’re looking for a bike light set, then look no further than the Cygolite Metro 700 and Hotshot 100 combo. Together, they represent the best value for money bike light set available today.

The Metro 700 headlight comes with 6 light mode options, including the Day Lightning mode to ensure you’re seen during the day.

On the other hand, the Hotshot 100 is arguably the most popular rear light among our readers here. You won’t find a high quality, 100 lumens rear lights at this price. Most, if not all will cost you more than this light set itself.

99% of bike light manufacturers today specify the brightness in terms of Lumens, except maybe for a German company, Busch & Muller.

While there is nothing wrong with using Lumens, there is another way to do it, which is better but less talked about.

Let me introduce you to the term Lux.

Lux vs Lumens

What’s a Lux and why is it better interpretation of the brightness?

Imagine the car salesperson telling you that the gas tank of the car you’re buying is 20 gallons.

Would you know how far 20 gallons will last you?

It depends on several factors, like the engine capacity right?

Lux is the measure of a light’s intensity and it affects what you see.

Lumens : The unit used to represent the amount of light, aka brightness emitted by a single source.

Lux : The unit used to measure the amount of light in a specific area, a certain distance from the source. In other words, it’s a measure of the light’s intensity.

Beam Angle : The coverage of the light beam in front of you. A higher beam angle results in a diffused beam pattern (lower lux), while a lower beam angle results in a focused beam pattern (higher lux). A beam angle of around 20-30 degrees is what you should be looking for.

2. Headlight Visibility Range

Like I mentioned in the section above, most bike light manufacturers specify the brightness in lumens.

Take 2 different light sets with the same amount of lumens and their visibility range could differ.

It all depends on whether the light beam’s patterns, narrow or wide.

PRO TIP : For a headlight where you can clearly see 40-50 feet in front, the lumens count usually falls somewhere between 300 to 500 lumens.

How Fast Do You Usually Ride?

Let’s assume for a second that you ride at 15mph and using a light with 50 feet of clear visibility.

With that, you’ll have around 2.27s of reaction time. That’s just about enough time for you to react to any hazards in front.

The slideshow below shows you the changes in light coverage as the lux reading goes up. Photos credit to Busch & Muller.

10 Lux

20 Lux

30 Lux

50 Lux

70 Lux

100 Lux

150 Lux

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3. Types of Bulbs (LED vs non LED)

Did you notice that most bike lights in the market today use LED or Light Emitting Diodes?

Well, there’s a reason for that.

Benefits of Using LED Bicycle Lights

Energy Efficient : High quality LED lights are 80-90% more energy efficient than traditional light bulbs which means that you’ll have longer battery life.

Less Heat : Up to 95% of the energy in LED lights are converted to light and only around 5% is wasted as heat. Compared to traditional bulbs, which does the exact opposite – 95% into heat and 5% into light!

4. Number of Lighting Modes

From my experience, it doesn’t matter how many modes are there. It’s just a numbers game for the manufacturers to look better than their competitors.

What’s more important is how you use the the light modes.

It’s important that you buy headlights with Flash/Strobe mode.

Most headlights today have them. But for some strange reasons, there are still lights without them.

PRO TIP : You don’t need a bike light with the most number of light modes.

5. Battery Life

You can still find bike lights using disposable aaa batteries today in the market.

For a longer battery life and durability, I’d recommend to go with USB rechargeable batteries. Most usb rechargeable lights either use the Lithium Ion (Li-Ion) or Lithium Polymer (Li-Pro) batteries today as they are lighter, smaller and has much more capacity.

You’ll be provided with a micro USB out from the box when you purchase.

There were major advancement made in lithium batteries in the past 5 years so it’s just not worth the effort to keep replacing batteries, especially if you use the bike lights on a daily basis.

The chart above shows why Lithium based batteries are preferred, especially for small electronic devices.

For the same weight, Lithium based batteries hold more charge.

For the same volume, Lithium based batteries hold more charge.

Size, battery capacity and battery life are relatively proportional. A longer battery life would require a larger battery capacity and hence a larger size.

That’s the reason why lights with above 1000 lumens comes with a separate rechargeable battery pack. Another reason is to avoid the battery pack overheating the entire light body.

What's considered a good battery life?

Some lights like the Cygolite Expilion 850 takes things up a notch with a user replaceable rechargeable battery. With this, you can have the option of carrying a spare rechargeable battery if you forgot to charge.

PRO TIP : You don’t need a bike light with the most number of light modes.

6. Handlebar Mounting Options

With most bicycle lights today, the 2 most popular mounting options are using straps mounts and clamp mounts.

When it comes to mounting locations, there are various options available, depending on the design of the light.